United Nations investigators say the ”highest authorities” in the Côte d’Ivoire government were behind a crackdown by the security forces in which more than 120 civilians died, a news report said on Monday.
Radio France International (RFI) said it has obtained a copy of the report by a UN human rights inquiry into the events of March 25 in the main city, Abidjan, when opposition supporters tried to protest against the government of President Laurent Gbagbo.
The security forces ”indiscriminately” killed civilians even though the protestors posed no serious threat, the inquiry found, according to RFI.
The UN investigators said the heavy-handed response by the security forces was planned and executed by the military and police under the direction of what it called the highest authorities in Côte d’Ivoire.
The report recommends that criminal investigations be conducted into the actions of those who carried out and planned the killings.
The UN high commissioner for human rights established the three-person inquiry team last month in response to an international outcry over the crackdown against the protest, which had been decreed illegal by Gbagbo.
The police said that no more than 37 people were killed, while opposition groups put the death toll at upwards of 300. Following the crackdown, two key political groups to pull out of the government of national unity, effectively terminating the country’s fragile peace accord.
The opposition wanted to protest what they describe as Gbagbo’s refusal to implement a peace deal brokered last year by former colonial power France.
Côte d’Ivoire has been in turmoil since September 2002 when disaffected soldiers from the north of the country launched an uprising that effectively split the country in half.
The peace agreement brought the rebels and the political opposition into a power-sharing deal with Gbagbo’s government a year ago but failed to end the polarisation.
At the root of the conflict is the country’s ethnically based political divide. Gbagbo won disputed elections in 2000 after key opposition candidates were banned from contesting because they were deemed not to have Ivorian nationality under a definition that particularly affected northerners. — Sapa-DPA